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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1936

  • Work on this object began.

2021

2025

  • You found it!

Reproduction, Marion Dorn

This is a Reproduction. It was photographed by Carl van Vechten and subject: Marion Dorn Kauffer. It is dated November 1 1936. Its medium is photograph. It is a part of the department.

In this portrait by friend Carl Van Vechten, Dorn sits confidently against the backdrop of her Scallop Shell textile designed for Warner and Sons—her most significant client of the 1930s. Dorn wrote to Van Vechten from London upon receiving the portrait, “Now about the pictures, I am absolutely delighted with them. I think they are the best pictures I have ever had taken.”

It is credited Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University; © Van Vechten Trust.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 58.4 × 43.8 cm (23 in. × 17 1/4 in.)

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Underground Modernist: E. McKnight Kauffer.

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

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If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318805208/ |title=Reproduction, Marion Dorn |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=20 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>